


You Like Me

by dutchydoescoke



Series: Ridiculous high school AU [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 00:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dutchydoescoke/pseuds/dutchydoescoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ridiculous small-town high school AU.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Raleigh’s in love with Mako Mori.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	You Like Me

**Author's Note:**

> I got “Call Me Maybe” stuck in my head after reading a post on tumblr and then this happened. Literally, that’s what happened. Song that Raleigh plays is called “Fade Into Me” by David Cook and y’all can listen to it [here](http://addictsitter.tumblr.com/post/56122381489/when-we-disappear-into-each-other-our-colors).

Raleigh’s in love with Mako Mori.

At least she knows he exists, which is more than Raleigh can say for Newt, who stares after Hermann like he’s the human personification of the number forty-two. Hermann might actually know Newt exists, but Raleigh’s still not certain about that one.

But still, he’s in love with Mako.

\---

She kicked his ass last week in the once-a-week co-ed gym class, and he’s fairly certain she’s going to do it _again_ this week.

It’s not kicking his ass, so much as her managing to pin him, because the point was that they were creating a dialogue with their bodies.

He’d gotten the first point, but she’d given it to him, with this look on her face that said she had the point to spare. She really could kick his ass if she wanted to.

He steps onto the mat with his staff and smiles at Mako, who just raises an eyebrow at him and tilts her head.

He’s going to get his ass kicked. Again.

He really doesn’t mind.

\---

Newt catches him doodling _Mr. Raleigh Mori_ on his notebook (he was daydreaming and it so was not his fault) and won’t stop giving him shit, but who cares. (Newt and Tendo have been teaming up to duct tape his mouth shut when he starts talking about her. They know she’s pretty, and intelligent, and can kick his ass, and they really don’t want to hear about it _again_.)

They could be considered friends, technically, Mako and Raleigh, except Mako’s, like, a genius, and Raleigh’s average and she is so out of his league, it’s not even funny. (Really, it’s not, and Newt and Tendo can stop laughing right the hell now.)

They wave when they pass in the hallways, and Raleigh cheers whenever she does something awesome in class. (Which totally does not warrant the “President of the Mako Mori fanclub” t-shirt that Tendo makes him. No matter what Tendo says.)

And he knows some of her interests, and that she does the jaeger simulations in the computer lab during most lunch breaks, and that she holds the highest score in school for it.

So, they could be considered “friends” in the loosest definition of the term, because Raleigh’s kind of terrified of her, so he’s not going to do anything else. Like, ever. (And her dad. Stacker Pentecost is _terrifying_.)

\---

It takes Tendo literally shoving him in front of Mako in the hallway before Raleigh summons up the courage to ask her if she’d like to get coffee with him after school. He hurriedly clarifies it as friends, because he really doesn’t want to face polite rejection and her informing him that she’s not interested.

Mako smiles at him, tilts her head to the side, and just says, “Tendo told me you liked me.”

Raleigh’s going to _kill_ him.

“Does it have to be as friends?” she asks, smiling wider when Raleigh shakes his head. “I like the coffee shop on main street, so you know. See you after class, Raleigh.”

Raleigh squeaks out a “see you after class” in reply and tries not to explode while Tendo and Newt crack up so hard that they have to lean against the lockers for support.

(He has absolutely _no_ idea how Tendo and Newt got knocked into the janitor’s mop water. Absolutely none. He’s sure it was a complete accident. Not that he knows what happened.)

\---

Coffee is a success, and Raleigh refuses to admit he does a victory dance after Mako asks him about having dinner one night. (Mako has pictures, though, and Raleigh just _knows_ Tendo’s going to get his hands on him, the bastard.)

He takes her home and tries not to be too obviously terrified when her father gives him the shovel talk. (Judging by the smile Mako tries to hide, he doubts he succeeds.)

Her dad does, at least, decide he’s not too bad, which makes him feel better. Raleigh doesn’t even mind the skeptical look he gives the car, either. (He knows Danger’s kind of old and a rust-bucket and held together by duct-tape and sheer willpower, and that that fact’s obvious at this point. It was Yancy’s car before Yancy left for college, and it was a piece of junk when Yancy bought it. But still, she’s his car and he doesn’t appreciate skeptical looks. He knows Mako’s dad is just being protective, though, so he doesn’t say anything.)

\---

Raleigh finds out that dating Mako Mori is, in fact, better than watching from a distance. (And it wasn’t pining from afar or whatever the fuck Newt and Tendo called it. Raleigh needs new friends.)

And he also finds out that, no, he wasn’t exaggerating, he really has been in love with her for a pathetically long time, and he awkwardly blurts that fact out on their sixth(!) date.

Mako, much to Raleigh’s glee, informs him he takes way too long, and kisses him after admitting she’s kind of been in love with him too.

\---

They do the jaeger simulation together once, curious to find out if the staff-fighting was right and they really are drift-compatible, making eyes at the grumpy lab teacher until he lets them dig out the equipment for a two-person team.

The drift, as it turns out, is just as intense as they said it was, and when they step out of the simulation, Raleigh swears there’s a lingering sense, there.

Mako’s smile and head tilt tell him she knows exactly what he’s thinking. (She probably does.)

\---

In his defense, after the drift, the song seemed like a brilliant idea. Mako’s dad was probably going to kill him, but he could live with that.

He stands on Danger’s hood and holds the speakers up, hitting play with his free hand and aiming the speakers at Mako’s window, thankful it’s the one right over the driveway.

“ _When we disappear into each other, our colors appear and bleed into one_ ,” Raleigh sings along quietly, hoping like hell that Mr. Pentecost doesn’t decide to kill him.

It takes less than a minute before Mako opens her window and asks him what he’s doing.

“...It seemed like the thing to do?” he offers up, and she rolls her eyes before closing her window. He’s about to call for her when the front door opens and she steps out, shaking her head at him.

“Ridiculous,” Mako informs him and Raleigh grins, climbing off the hood and putting the speakers down. He pulls her into a hug and rests his forehead against hers, humming along to the song and smiling when she sings along quietly. “ _The two of us melting together until we become something new_.”

“So, ghost drifting is a thing, did you know that?” he asks. She just leans back and gives him a look.

“If the dreams I’ve had the past couple of nights are any indication, yes, I did.”

\---

(Tendo makes him a “Mr. Raleigh Mori” t-shirt for their first anniversary. Raleigh only stops trying to kill him because he’s distracted by Mako’s hysterical laughter.)


End file.
